I have read that all Hondas 1986 to 1998 share same stereo loom and plug, then in 1998 it changed.

I want to find a connector to allow me to run the newer stereo in the older car.

I called my local Honda dealer who do not sell them, and the local audio installers said the only thing that happens to factory stereo gear is they come out, not go in - so there are no adaptor plugs available.

What I'm trying to achieve is to swap my dead tape/ Jap radio unit for a top of the line $700 USD Honda headunit, but the plugs are not the same. Now while I can easily cut and rewire, I'm just trying to figure out whether patch plugs are available to go between the two different ones (blue and white).

I guess Honda doesn't sell honda branded stereos aftermarket, as if they did it would seem strange not to carry an adaptor considering the huge price of the units.

Local installer is right I would think. What is this $1000 factory headunit you speak of? Because if that is their retail price, don't take it as meaning thats particurally good, it just means its an expensice factory bit. For example the Spoiler on my Integra Type R is $2500 new....its a bit of fibreglass.......

You may be better off just buying an after market headunit, pioneer and the likes.

Expensive factory options usually have some junk amplifiers located elsewhere in the car, so while the loom may fit partially in some cases, you will get no sound as there is no onboard amp in the headdeck and as you are upgrading from the low spec system, none in the car.

Best bet is to forget anything that has a car manufacturer on the front and get a known aftermarket brand, - then you can get cables etc.

Yep my research over the last few days confirms what everyones been saying, seems the stereo is actually very poor value for the money, probably due to its age now. Even though $700USD, it only has 3 second antiskip, and CD-A and CD-R compatability, nothing else.

I suppose I'll just take the old Honda Pioneer headunit out and bash it with a hammer and buy a new one.

I still have one unanswered question, is if using loom adaptors is "not the done thing", I assume audio installers will never use them. Does it not make their job easier to use them?

I assume that this must mean if I buy a new headunit and get it installed, the first thing they will do is cut off the factory plug and just match wires to stereo... after all there is no point keeping the factory plug if keeping standard stereo or upgrading to manufacturer products is a no-no?

They will usually use a car specific to ISO cable and plug that into the supplied loom with the headdeck, of if its a NZ new sony where they dont give you an ISO loom for some reason, plug it into another loom that costs about $10.

What you will not find is a loom to plug a honda spec headdeck into anything else, because quite frankly the ones that are made for car manufacturers are feature lacking, ugly crap so noone in their right mind would want to put them back into something else.

The only value that a factory car stereo has is to someone who has a stolen/broken one and doesnt want to put something nicer with more features in to replace it.

Well from what you said, and the pages I just read about ISO connectors, are you saying that new stereos come with ISO looms so they are plug and play if corect ISO to car adaptor is also bought, and if so, since when did they start doing this?

I've installed many car stereos, mostly pioneers, and all of them just had the car headunit plug with loose wires (no plugs).

All the ones I have bought recently have either had an ISO on the back for off brand stuff, or came with an ISO to propriatiory loom in the box - *EXCEPT* a locally purchased sony that had the propritory to a bunch of wires loom in the box. A parallel imported sony of the same model but UK spec had the proper loom with it (and RDS, and $150 less price)

Its absurd that they ship loose wires when most new cars have an ISO plug in them since it actually is you know, a standard...

I basically had to throw my old car (2002 primera) away because the car stereo installer cut the factory connector off and then started yanking cables to make his job easier when the wires were too short to get at easily. Car never stopped having electrical problems after that. (And had gouges in the paint where they kept slipping whilst adjusting the antenna, busted the connector on the heater controls instead of pressing the release tab, snapped a lug off the heater redirector baffle's servo motor, dropped a screw into the cigarette lighter hole which later shorted out, used 2 out of 6 screws whish were both from another random car to hold the bracket in place and ... you get the idea :-S)

I wonder what can be done for weird Chinese headunits? I have one of those cd/dvd/mp3/usb/sd jobbies that I actually quite due to it having a very flat response, a good amplifier chip and being surprisingly easy to use like but the plug is quite custom.

I sort of have another problem - which I think would be resolved by hacking the factory plug off, the rear right speaker goes on and off randomly, I have to give the headunit a push to resolve it. Although the headunit doesn't visibly seem to move, there must be a loose pin and pushing it makes it come back into contact. This is not an issue on the open road, but bumpy shingle or speed bumps upset it.

I haven't bought a new headunit for a year, but back then I bought 3, new, 2 pioneer, 1 alpine, all from local retailers, all of them were loose wires (not ISO plug). Thats why I hadn't seen or heard of them until now.

[EDIT] When it looked like I was not going to get the adaptor or even a plug to do what I want in NZ, and was about to click a heap off on Ebay, I found a place in NZ which distributes them (not sure of cost through them, probably gonna be a shocker, they are only $17 including delivery off Ebay). I have ordered 2 and will have them tuesday morning.

I have yet to see a custom plug on a cheap chinese one - the shuttle, the foryou and the domain that I have fitted recently have all had iso's on the back so were a direct plug into the loom in the car - one didnt come with the adapter for the antenna however, but I had one from my panasonic lying around.

I guess they put old motorola socket on the headdecks since there is a wide variety of adapters from the various standards to that available everywhere, whereas adapters to put an iso antenna socket into some cars doesnt exist.